Lawmakers in Zimbabwe have passed a law that could place parents in jail if they fail to send their children to school, BBC reported.
The economic downfall in Zimbabwe is so severe the government has made education a priority for students, many of whom drop out of school.
On Monday, the government passed a law mandating Zimbabwean parents who allow their children under the age of 16 to skip class or drop out can face a fine or jail time, BBC reported. Parents with children found not attending classes could either go to jail for two years or be ordered by the government to pay $260.
According to BBC, the dropout rate, which is about 20% in some parts of the country, is due to pregnancies, early marriages and the commute it takes for some students to reach school, while some have a lack of interest in attending school in the first place.
In response to this, the government is making it an offense to expel pregnant students, BBC reported. Additionally, children currently going to school cannot be expelled for non-payment of school fees, which nearly 60% of primary students failed to do last year, according to the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee.
Zimbabwe is going through an economic crisis due to "rampant inflation" with a constant shortage of foreign currency, food, fuel, electricity and medicine, BBC reported.
Parents are often forced to decide between buying food for their children or paying upwards of $700 for their education. As a result, some parents have resorted to enrolling their children into illegal, unregistered and makeshift schools that offer education for about $3 with the benefit of having flexibility on how fees get paid.
A downside to the $3 illegal schools is a possibility that there will be limited supplies, such as no desks and a single textbook for the instructor.
Before this law, the African country did not enforce compulsory primary education, allowing guardians to accept full responsibility for their children's education, or lack thereof, without fear of jail time or fines, IOL reported.
The Zimbabwean educational system is comprised of early childhood development courses, seven years of primary and six years of secondary school before students can apply for colleges.
Former president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, who was also a teacher, died last year. One of his signature policies gave Zimbabwe one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, BBC reported. His administration gave Black Zimbabweans free access to education through hundreds of state schools.
When free access to education ended in the 1990s, it led the country to a downward spiral. Last week, however, U.S. officials blamed Zimbabwe’s downfall on its role in “[undermining] democratic processes or institutions” before extended sanctions against Zimbabwe’s top leaders.
The current president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is blaming sanctions for crippling development in the country.
